Friday, December 21, 2012

Feature and Follow Friday 12/21/12 AND Gift Card Giveaway Winner AND I've reached a four-digit following!


In honor of the fact that the world has not ended, I decided to take the time to participate in one of my favorite weekly events.  As usual, Feature and Follow Friday is sponsored by Parajunkie and Alison Can Read.  The purpose of this event is to learn about the two featured bloggers each week, as well as to increase your own blog following by joining in on the fun!  Here is this week's question:

What have you learned from book blogging that you didn't know before about the publishing industry?


Hmm, this is kind of a hard one for me.  First off I guess I've learned about when publishers want you to review their ARCs.  I've worked at a bookstore since 2000 I think.  And at one point when I started getting the ARCs at the store, I didn't pay a lot of attention to the little letters about sending in my thoughts, or any of that.  Once I joined NetGalley I learned how important it is to give the publishers your review.  It is kind of what they expect or kind of ask for in return for letting you have a chance to read the book early.  I've also learned from other bloggers about how you can contact publishers themselves to request ARCs.  Not that I've done much of that.  I guess I figure I already get so many from NetGalley and the bookstore where I work that I don't want to be greedy.  But some series that I wouldn't have probably began if it wasn't for ARCs, well, I should get more into requesting those so I can continue reading the whole series in the same way.

So, what are some things you've learned?

I'd also like to announce my winner from the recent Gift Card Giveaway Hop sponsored by Kathy at I Am a Reader Not a Writer, and Mary from Sweeping Me.  The winner of the $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble was Cheryl M.  She has been contacted and replied, so I'll be getting her prize out to her in the next day or so.

And last, but not least, thanks to the giveaway, my GFC follower number is over 1000!!  So now, I've got to figure out what kind of prize to give away for that.  There has to be a prize!! I wish I could do something really big, but I probably can't afford more than a $20 gift card or a single book.  But I'm thinking of just leaving it open to the followers, maybe a choice of book from The Book Depository?  What do you think?  I'd love to hear what my followers would like.